Tuesday, February 25, 2014

365 in 365 Declutter Challenge: February Update

How is your decluttering going? It's the 56th day of the year today so your target for 365 Items in 365 Days is to have purged 56 items by now. Don't worry if you're behind though... there's still lots of time to declutter!

Our 365 Items in 365 Days Facebook group has been growing a lot lately! It's so exciting to be part of such an encouraging and motivating group of people who are all decluttering their homes and their lives.

I've been a little quiet on the blog here lately... and that's because in addition to the purging I'm doing in my own home, I've been busy the last 2 weeks helping both a colleague and my parents declutter their homes in preparation for selling, staging, and moving in the near future. They've all done a fabulous job and it's rewarding to be able to help them achieve their decluttering goals. I really can't say which I like more... decluttering my own home or helping others declutter theirs!

But since it's nearly the end of the month, here's my February update on everything I've purged in the last month!

I reorganized a corner of my basement that had a lot of stuff piled up. In the process I gave away:

1 plastic file box I wasn't using anymore

1 tote bag I haven't used in years

2 bags of paper "grass" that I got on Freecycle with some cute baskets (love the baskets, don't need the filler)

1 collage frame that I've had for several years and kept meaning to use as a gift for someone with pictures of our family... but it's a bit big for either of our parents' homes and we just had smaller collages made from our portraits so I won't be using it

7 chocolate molds and 8 packages of mini baking cups that we haven't used in several years

I gave away the basket filler to my mother-in-law who makes baskets fairly often. I dropped the old cell phone off at my local Rogers store as part of the Phones for Food program, and I made several people happy by Freecycling the rest :)

Another area of my home that I decluttered this month was my stash of reusable bags. We have a basket by the door of the bags we use most often, but I had a bin in my hall closet full of other bags. I went through it and got rid of most of them since we'd barely touched them since I organized that closet nearly 2 years ago. Felt great!

I donated 12 bags and threw out 1 little purple lunch bag since it was cracking and we have others we prefer to use.

I continued decluttering my kitchen this month. That process just never seems to end! I purged:

3 cookbooks

1 recipe file (and a 1" stack of recycled recipes that I never use!)

2 Children's Bibles that my kids have outgrown

2 flippers (I had more than we need)

And my hubby purged 1 pair of socks (nothing to do with the kitchen but I didn't feel like taking a picture of just the socks!)

I donated all these items to Value Village as part of my pick-up last week from the Diabetes Clothesline program.

I always love when they call me to schedule a pick-up because even though I'm continually decluttering, I make a special effort to declutter in the last few days before they come. Here are a few items I purged in my last-minute pre-Diabetes pick-up days this month:

10 new, unused sponges and cleaning pads that I purged when I organized under my kitchen sink last week. {I also threw out 2 old rags and 1 box of degreaser tablets that didn't work anymore}

Valentine's items we don't need including 1 poster, 1 bag, 3 pencils, and 2 erasers (the kids received several new ones this year so we purged a few unused ones from last year)

2 more kitchen utensils (I'm really paring them down to just the few we use the most!), 1 laundry duffle bag we haven't used, and 1 mini cribbage board since we were given a regular cribbage board... I'm really trying to enforce the "one-in-one-out" rule around here :)

6 books that I don't want anymore

And, I didn't take pictures, but I also dropped off 5 bottles of expired medications to our local pharmacy. I also threw out 1 really old and discoloured pillow and 1 equally ugly pillow protector.

Last month I mentioned all the cassettes and other entertainment items that I had purged but that I wasn't counting because they hadn't left my home yet. In the last few weeks I've given away 2 of the cassette drawers, 4 cassettes, 1 correspondence course, 1 portable CD player, 1 CD player case, 2 CD cases, 6 CD's and 1 DVD. And I tossed one old recorded video cassette.

I've found someone on Freecycle who would like the cassettes and the last set of cassette drawers, but we haven't arranged a pick-up time yet so I won't count them until they are out of the house. And I'm planning to go to The Beat Goes On soon, so I haven't counted the rest of the CD's and DVD's yet either.

All totaled, that makes 100 items decluttered this month! Which brings my challenge total to 146 items so far! And again, it's mostly just been stuff I come across that we're not using any more. I still have way more to purge, but I'm happy with my progress in these 2 months.

If you're just starting out or you're having trouble decluttering, please don't let my total discourage you... I'm not trying to show off here or anything :) The idea behind me sharing what I'm purging is to show you items that you maybe haven't thought about decluttering, so you can gain control over the clutter in your home!

Keep your vision in mind of what you want your home to look like and then just focus on decluttering one item every day. I've heard from so many of you that you start out purging one thing and end up getting rid of more and that's great! It gets easier the more you do it :)

So, that's my decluttering journey so far! I'm glad you're part of the 365 Items in 365 Days Declutter Challenge and I hope this post gives you some ideas of what you can purge next! If you haven't joined yet... jump in!

Are you ready to declutter?!

Remember to tell others about this challenge. They'll thank you for helping them declutter. And don't forget, I'll be basing the the prize at the end on how many people participated :)

Feel free to grab this button to spread the news if you're a blogger or have a website.

If you need any decluttering ideas to get you started or keep you going, check out my Decluttering/Purging Tips & Ideas board on Pinterest.

A great purge so far! I especially enjoyed learning about the Phones for Food program. I didn't know a program like this existed, and I have found my old phone I don't need anymore. I was going to throw it into an electronic waste bin but now I know where I can bring it! Thanks!

I love hearing from my readers! This is a great place to ask questions, answer questions, and share your organizing tips. Thank you so much for commenting! I look forward to getting to know you better :)

Love what you see here? Feel free to share! But, all posts on this blog are original content and may not be copied or paraphrased. You may use one photo with a brief description and a link back to the blog post. Do not remove the watermark or edit the photos on this site in any way. A comment on the post or an email is appreciated when using my photos. This blog was created for informational and entertainment purposes only. For more information, please read my privacy policy and disclosure information.